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Teen Acts: Quick Guide

How does Bieber stack up against these teen acts? Here are some of the biggest, the lengths of their careers and what they’re known for. One Direction (2010-present): The Brit boy band is Bieber's teen crush competition. Jonas Brothers (2005-present): The Disney promoted band of brothers never made it out of teen fandom. Justin Timberlake (1995-present): Most successful graduate of the N Sync, Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees boy band rage of the late ’90s/early 2000s. Made a stellar transition to R&B/pop super fame. Bieber followed in his Saturday Night Live footsteps in 2010 and 2013. Immature (1992-2001): R&B group expanded on its fame with plentiful television and movie appearances — “House Party 4,” anyone? New Kids on the Block (1984-’94, present): Teen pop sensations faltered in their attempts at solo careers. Reunited in recent years for profitable tours. Michael Jackson (1965-2009): Wowed audiences with preternatural talent in The Jackson 5, then became a worldwide star as a solo artist. Mourned as a cautionary tale for his later scandals and odd behavior. David Cassidy (1970-present): Family-friendly TV show “The Partridge Family” launched his career, which he followed up with successful solo albums. The Monkees (1966-70): Made-for-TV band was created to cash in on The Beatles’ success. Several of the group’s hit songs are regarded as pop classics. The Beatles (1960-70): The band that created the teen girl screamfest known as Beatlemania is widely regarded as one of the best and most influential bands, ever. Elvis (1954-77): The first rock ’n’ roll teen idol launched this genre by swinging his hips on television, then cranked out years of No. 1 hits. His groundbreaking music is still popular.

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Let’s say you had a friend you haven’t seen in a few years, but you communicate every single day online.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to shed a few tears when you reunite.

So Lori Johnson, of Ottumwa, should probably give her 15-year-old daughter a pass for announcing in advance that she will be crying during the Justin Bieber concert Sunday night, the third Beiber show they’ve attended since 2010.

“I said, ‘Why are you going to be crying?’

“And she said, ‘I”ll be so happy.’ ”

Even though Lori remembers thinking singers like Shaun Cassidy and Jon Bon Jovi were attractive, “I don’t ever remember being that way toward a famous person, about meeting or seeing someone.”

Justin Bieber, however, is no ordinary famous person. He’s a child singing sensation, discovered on YouTube, who turned into a social media superstar, tweeting to 42 million people, more than anyone else on the social network. He has the second most watched video ever on YouTube (Psy’s “Gangnam Style” beat him out for the top spot) with 869 million views. His fans have put one of his albums in the top 10 on the charts every year for the last three years. And they have an inspirational nickname: the Beliebers.

Hannah Willey, 13, of Des Moines, counts herself among them. In fourth grade, she discovered him on YouTube after hearing kids at school talk about him.

“I searched him and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love him!’ I got his CD a little later and now I have all his CDs and posters and headphones and pillows and blankets and books and magazines and movies,” she said.

She’s even created an Instagram account for favorite Bieber photos.

“He’s a really good singer. But I like him most because he has a bunch of charities he likes to do. He’s good to his fans; he talks to his fans. A lot of other bands don’t do that type of stuff as much.”

Amber Stoffer, 21, of West Des Moines, also can list the charities he supports and tell you about Bieber’s relationship with his mother.

“He puts everyone before himself,” she said, explaining why she sees him as potential husband material.

Fans get daily insights into his selflessness and rock star life from social media. His feed highlights fawning Twitter followers and nods to every city he performs in. Denver was “loud.” The Bay Area “goes hard.” Vegas was a “great” show. He tweets about his little sister and Nelson Mandela. He congratulates himself for making “#History” after fast album sales. He even gets involved in the occasional feud.

More importantly, he drops preteen-tantalizing wisps of vagueness, like “my heart is still the same.”

What could he mean by that?

That he and pop starlet Selena Gomez are over? That he’ll possibly be ready to love again by the time he’s performing in Des Moines? Fans of cute boys in bands have never before had so much detail to populate their dreams.

If you’re not a Belieber, you may be dismissively snorting that Bieber’s a flash-in-the-pan child star, that he’s never had a single song hit No. 1 on the charts. His transition to adulthood has involved a series of embarrassing incidents, from on-stage vomiting to angering his neighbors with automotive hijinks to traveling with a monkey and leaving questionable guest book comments. (At the Anne Frank Museum, Bieber wrote of the Holocaust victim,“Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a Belieber.”)

That’s enough to give a mom pause.

“I think he’s got talent,” Lori said. “At the concerts we’ve been to, he can play the drums like there’s no tomorrow. I think the whole thing is, his mom quit traveling with him and that’s when everything stopped working for him. His mom wasn’t there to ground him and he’s on his own for the first time. So I hope he doesn’t mess it up.”

But Bieber fans argue this is just part of growing up in the public eye, and he’s a long way from becoming VH1 reality show fodder, like fellow former teen stars Leif Garrett and Danny Bonaduce.

Stoffer said his music is good enough to keep his career on the upswing.

“His song ‘Be All Right.’ Anytime I’m having a bad day, I’ll put that on and it changes my whole mood.”

Cara Skramovsky, 22, of Conrad, has her tickets ready for the concert and thinks Bieber has a Justin Timberlake-level career ahead of him.

“Honestly, I got a lot of hate for liking him,” she said. Skramovsky was well past the teen-crush age. She just likes his music, and thinks it’s getting better.

“I think he’s grown up. Now that he’s writing his own music, it’s more relatable. He’s a talented artist, not just a kid living a dream.”

Even 13-year-old Willey is savvy enough to blame the media for distortion. “The paparazzi lie a bunch,” she said. “A few years ago, they said that he had a kid, which ... that’s not true at all. I guess that’s sort of how the world works and what famous people have to deal with.”

Local singer Madison Ray said a long career could happen, if Bieber can create his own sound. But the singer isn’t there yet, in his opinion.

“I have always believed that Bieber has a lot to offer as a musician, but has yet to be given the opportunity to express himself artistically,” Ray said. “It’s no secret that he is chasing the biggest icons of pop, Prince and Michael Jackson.

“... Perhaps it’s those around him that are more concerned to squeeze every dollar from his talent — this happened to Elvis Presley, which didn’t end well — or maybe he hasn’t figured out what he wants to say or how he wants to say it, yet.”

Giant teams of producers also seem like a problem to James Biehn, owner of the Central Iowa Music Lab, a program that trains kids and adults who want to play an instrument or learn how to play in a band. You might think students would be excited to follow in Bieber’s YouTube footprints, launching their own careers with intimate videos.

A few years ago, students were excited to learn his songs. But the slick production and heavy dance beats on his more recent material is strictly studio stuff, not anything kids can play.

“There’s not a whole lot going on in his music that’s actual instruments,” Biehn said. “It was him doing a video and now it’s being a cog in a machine and everyone wants a piece of him. It’s not as accessible.”

Perhaps the biggest test is the simplest one — when his music is played, do people dance? Cabaret West Glen’s DJ Metro said the answer is yes.

“The songs ‘Boyfriend,’ ‘Beauty and the Beat’ and ‘All Around the World’ are all songs that get playtime and usually will pack the dance floor with the ladies right away,” he said. “But the real deal this summer has been his collaboration with Will.i.am: ‘That Power.’ Any time this song is played you get a flush of dancers on the stage and people bouncing and jumping to the beat. Young, old, guy or gal, everyone breaks it down to this song.”

And even if you don’t like his music, Stoffer points out, he may still have more influence on you than you think. Just check the mirror.

“The guys at school didn’t like him,” Stoffer said, “but all of them had the Bieber haircut.”

Bieber then and now

Album sales

Then: “My World 2.0,” released in 2010. Total sales: 2.32 million

Now: “Believe,” released in 2012. Total sales: 1.34 million

Quote

Then: “To be in this position at such a young age has been incredible. … I wouldn’t be here without my fans on YouTube.”

— CNN, 2009

Now: “This is not a gimmick. I’m an artist, and I should be taken seriously. All this other bull should not be spoken of.”

— Accepting an award at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards

Lyrics

Then: “My first love broke my heart for the first time / And I was like baby, baby, baby, oh / Like baby, baby, baby, no.”

— “Baby,” 2010

Now: “Baby what you doin’, where you at, where you at? / Why you actin’ so shy? Holdin’ back, holdin’ back.”

— “All Around the World 2013”

Women

Then: His mom, Pattie Mallette, a single mother who raised him working office jobs

Now: On-off relationship with pop starlet Selena Gomez

Style

Then: Signature haircut — a much-imitated shaggy look with bangs

Now: Odd low-crotched Hammer pants

Song launch

Then: Homemade videos on YouTube

Now: Bieber has been teasing his next single “Heartbreaker” for more than a month on social media. The song already has its own hashtag.